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MENDICANTS MENDOZA 385 next visited Pegu, Siam, Java, and some of the neighboring countries, and in 1547 he made a second voyage to Japan. Soon after his ar- rival there a civil war broke out, in which Pinto took part for a while; and having re- turned to Malacca, he met St. Francis Xavier, "the apostle of the Indies," with whom in the course of a few months he made a third visit to Japan, arriving there in August, 1548. By these voyages Pinto acquired great wealth, and in 1553 he was at Goa, preparing to return to Portugal, when the arrival there of the body of Xavier, and his conferences with the Jesu- its, so excited his religious enthusiasm, that he devoted his whole fortune, except 2,000 crowns which he sent to his poor relations in Portu- gal, to the foundation of a seminary for propa- gating the faith in Japan. He was then ap- pointed ambassador from the Portuguese vice- roy of India to the prince of Bungo in Japan. Before setting out he took the vows as a Jes- uit ; but on his arrival in Japan his zeal evapo- rated, and he was released from his vows. He returned to Lisbon, where he arrived Sept. 22, 1558, bearing to the queen regent a letter from the viceroy at Goa, recommending him warmly to the favor of the government. He spent a few years in attendance on the court, which brought him nothing but promises, and which he says were more tedious and harassing than his 21 years of service in the East, where he had been 13 times taken by the enemy, and 17 times sold as a slave. The first extant ac- count of his travels and adventures is given in a collection of Jesuits' letters published in Ital- ian at Venice in 1565. He wrote a full narra- tive of his life, which was published by Fran- cisco de Andrada under the title of Peregri- napao de Fernam Mendez Pinto (4to, Lisbon, 1614). A Spanish translation by Francisco de Herrera, in which great liberties were taken with the original, appeared in 1620; a French translation was made by Bernard Figuier, of which three editions have been printed (Paris, 1628, 1645, and 1830), and an English transla- tion by H. Cogan, of which there have been two editions (London, 1663 and 1692). Pin- to's reputation has suffered greatly by an oft quoted line in Congreve's " Love for Love : " "Ferdinand Mendez Pinto was but a type of thee, thou liar of the first magnitude ! " But it is now admitted that his general veracity cannot be disputed. MENDICANTS, or Begging Friars. See RELI- GIOUS ORDERS. ^ MENDIZABAL, Jnan Alvarez y, a Spanish finan- cier, born in Cadiz about 1790, died in Madrid, Nov. 3, 1853. He was the son of a trader of Jewish descent named Mendez, and in 1808 ob- tained employment in the victualling depart- ment of the French army in Spain. In 1819 he took part in the secret movements which culminated in the revolution of the following year, and subsequently aided the constitutional government in the negotiation of loans. Flee- ing to England on the suppression of the rev- olution, he was imprisoned at the instance of English capitalists whom he had induced to take parts of a loan. After the recovery of his liberty he founded in London a commercial establishment with the aid of funds deposited with him by a friend. He formed the acquain- tance of an agent of Dom Pedro of Portugal, and in 1827 negotiated a loan for him. This and other operations gave him an extensive reputation both in England and Spain, which in June, 1835, led to his appointment as minis- ter of finance in the cabinet of Toreno ; but he continued to reside in London, where in Au- gust he negotiated a loan for the Spanish gov- ernment. On his return to Madrid he became president of the council. The cortes placed 100,000 men at his disposal, and gave him full authority to bring the civil war to a close. But he injured the credit of the government by jobbing transactions, increased the public debt, dissolved the cortes (Jan. 27, 1836), In- sulted the French ambassador, who opposed his influence, and was compelled to resign (May 15). His reappointment as minister of finance (Sept. 11) caused great indignation, and on Aug. 10, 1837, he withdrew from office. In 1841, under Espartero, he was once more min- ister of finance, but shared his fall in July, 1843. He afterward lived in great splendor for several years in Paris. MENDOCINO, a N. W. county of California, bordering on the Pacific, and drained by the head waters of Eel and Russian rivers, and by numerous other streams; area, 3,816 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 7,545, of whom 129 were Chi- nese. The interior is mountainous, bujt gener- ally adapted to agriculture or grazing. Along the coast the mountain sides are covered with forests of redwood. The chief productions in 1870 were 95,639 bushels of wheat, 129,971 of oats, 64,670 of barley, 83,473 of potatoes, 178,- 493 Ibs. of wool, 62,692 of butter, 59,400 of hops, and 10,116 tons of hay. There were 4,405 horses, 3,431 milch cows, 7,906 other cattle, 49,839 sheep, and 18,109 swine; 2 flour mills, 15 saw mills, and 6 manufactories of saddlery and harness. Capital, Ukiah. MENDOZA. I. A S. W. province of the Ar- gentine Republic, bounded N. by San Juan, E. by San Luis, S. by the unsettled districts W. of Buenos Ayres, and W. by Chili, from which it is separated by the Andes ; area, 65,000 sq. m. ; pop. in 1869, including inhabitants of foreign birth, 65,413. The entire western portion of the province is mountainous, being covered by the main chain and detached spurs of the Andes ; while to the east is a ridge ex- tending southward from the province of San Juan and forming the dividing line with San Luis, being a continuation of the Famatina mountains of La Rioja. In the vicinity of the capital rises the Paramillos chain, whose maximum elevation is about 10,000 ft., and near these lies the lofty valley of Uspallata, with a mean elevation of 6,000 ft. Among the peaks skirting this part of the republic